Crazy About Hu

Hello readers, by the time this edition of the blog hits your screens we will be well into boring old January, with all the fun and anticipation of the festive season behind us and only the wonders of a wet weekend to look forward to. At this time of year I generally try to spend some time taking stock of myself and my development in the past years, and to look back at the giants in my chosen art form.

This year I am mesmerised by the work of Professor Mary Lee Hu from Seattle who translates fibre arts and basket weaving into her work with wire. Having started with brass and finding that this worked, she now uses 18 and 22K gold in her beautiful jewellery. It is said that she takes a good half an hour to weave an inch of the jewellery she makes and when you see it, you will wonder why it doesn't take longer.

One day, one day, I promised myself - I can dream, can't I?? 
In the meanwhile as a pacifier, I took an online class from Sarah Thompson in the art of wire bracelet making.
One of the projects in her class inspired me to turn my hand to a bit of twining myself. After all, I reasoned, the project called for eight shortish wires to be woven together - why not add just a couple more and make a 'slightly' more substantial, and a teeny weeny bit longer piece that I could turn into a necklace, incorporating a beautiful pink striped lampwork bead? 

Sheesh! Did I just say just a couple more wires, and just a bit longer?? - I must have been out of my tiny mind! Toc! Toc! Toc!
Here it is - I brought the wires together and split them up, twisting them as I did so and then back together again - There are sixteen wires in total in this piece, each one about two feet long, all bound together with fine wire - yes, Toc! Toc! Toc! indeed.

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Oh, and by the way, I have to give my cat Charlie credit for part of the weave!

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And Wilfred even very kindly agreed to model it for me when I needed to try it out.

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Symphony

Giveaway 

In the spirit of welcoming the New Year, I decided to host a giveaway on the Caprilicious  Facebook page. The giveaway runs till the 15th of January. All you have to do is to head over to Facebook - follow the link above, like the picture of the necklace and tell me how or where you would wear it.

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The FrankenButterfly

I did it, I did it, I managed to finish off all those old canes - they came from a series by Marie Segal, made three years ago.
I ended up with a bunch of ring trays, a tutorial for ring bowls that I am yet to use and an empty box where I used to store all those canes.
I woke up one morning with a vision - I saw a brightly coloured door number for our front door in polymer clay in my dreams. I jumped out of bed and drew my vision ( yes, I am now a certifiable Toc! Toc!) on the first piece of paper I could lay my hands on. It has a large butterfly in profile and a flower on the top of the number which is going to be made of all the canes I am going to repopulate my recently emptied box with.
​ I spent a happy afternoon making the beginnings of a butterfly cane. This is the first time I have made something from my imagination armed with a load of images from the internet (not to mention my 'vision') so I have no idea what it will look like when it is reduced, but let's just wait and see - anyway, there's no waste with this fabulous medium. This insect is really a Franken butterfly as it is made from an amalgamation of at least 4 images, as if I have tried to improve on nature. As I only have time to work with clay at weekends, this is as far as I have got.

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 I shall make the other canes, one by one and then put them all together in my door furniture. Before this, I have to reduce this behemoth without distorting it.
​ I'm not sure whether it ought to be a standalone number or part of a tile - d'you have any thoughts??

I will be back in Bangalore in February and running my exhibition at Raintree on the 12th and 13th of February - you are all invited, of course. Do come by and talk to me - I would love that. There's a lovely little cafe/patisserie just around the corner and we can have a cuppa if it is quiet.

Have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place, 
Until then
​xx